A strong demand for small loans is said to be among the factors driving growth for micro-financier Seed Investments Limited since it officially began operations in November of last year.

With loans currently capped at a maximum of $200,000, founder, CEO and majority shareholder Michael Lee-Chin Jr told the Jamaica Observer that most of the request that the company has been getting for funding tends to be skewed to the smaller end of the lending portfolio.

“In terms of funding, what our company offers right now is a lot of personal funding, the majority of which are disbursed in small loans. Lots of persons are requesting these loans and a big thing that we are finding out, of which I’m very surprised, is that our customers really love those $5,000 loans. One would think it’s nothing but they’d be really surprised just to know how useful these small loans are to borrowers,” he further said to the Business Observer during a catch-up interview at the recent Fintech Islands Experience Conference (FIX 2025) held in Barbados.

The small loans, which attract 10 per cent interest, the CEO said, have become a big sell with Seed customers who often use them to fund a number of personal activities which sometimes range from paying a bill to simply covering transportation costs for a workweek.

Having less risk, the size of these loans, he said, allows them to be processed within 24-48 hours with some 20 loans, on average, now transacted daily. Though several clients start at this baseline figure, they often scale up as they work their way up the value chain in subsequent applications.

“In some cases if our algorithm qualifies someone for funding, we sometimes start them off with a $5,000 loan and watch them pay it off, after which our system recalculates a new loan offer allowing them to grow slowly as they build up their credit with us and that is a big thing for the company,” the CEO added.

Processing over 3,000 sign-ups since the company’s official roll-out in November 2024, Lee-Chin Jr said that Seed’s client base, which continues to expand, now comprises a good mix of banked and underbanked customers. Having less onerous requirements, quick processing times and an overall hassle-free application process, when compared to that of most financial institutions, he said more people are choosing to skip the line as they take advantage of the services offered by his company.

Seed, which operates as a fully digital microfinance entity, allows customers to do everything online from any of their mobile devices. Co-founded by Lee-Chin Jr and business partners Adrian Dunkley and Andrew Patterson, the company since its unveiling in 2022 aims to tap into a pool of almost two billion in un/under-banked populations existing across the globe.

The company, after securing central bank approval to operate as a licensed micro lender in 2023, has despite its slow roll-out to market. Lee-Chin said has been using the time in the lead-up to its recent start to properly buildout its website and business platforms in order to allow for better customer connectivity. Following a series of aggressive marketing campaigns over the period, the company, he said, has also been able to pick up thousands of new subscribers via social media.

“Very soon we will be pushing our current loan limit up to $500,000 as we continue to scale as the need comes in. We’re growing organically—at first I wanted to grow so quickly but after realising and understanding the path we’re on and where we’re headed, I’m no longer in a rush. There is currently nowhere as easy as
Seedja.com to get a loan right now and I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to do as a company so far,” Lee-Chin Jr said.

With plans in train to further expand the business beyond local shores, a possible entry into other Caribbean markets, Lee-Chin Jr said, could become a reality by 2027.

“Outside of Jamaica, the company in the next 18 months or so plan on expanding to a number of other territories including: Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana and the Dominican Republic. As we perfect our model we’ll also be looking to get into bigger markets such as Bogota, Columbia, where there is approximately 50 million un/under-banked. We’re in talks with some people there right now,” he noted, while citing longer-term ambitions for the company to also expand to markets such as Africa where it can gain access to an even larger un/underbanked population existing on that continent.

Describing the company’s capital base as ‘extensive’, Lee-Chin Jr, son of billionaire investor Michael Lee-Chin and main financial backer, however, said that as Seed plans for expansion continue to unfold, the micro lender also remains bullish on its longer-term goal of entering the banking sector, at which time it will seek to become a full-fledged digital bank.

With the directors also mulling the possibility of undertaking a capital raise at some point in the near future, if realised, the funds, he said, will be used to strengthen the company’s liquidity pool and to fund some of its planned objectives.

“We’re thinking about potentially listing on the junior stock exchange in another two years or so but at this point I’m still not yet sure if this is the path we’ll take, as based on how we are structuring the business, we may not need to, so we continue to see how it goes first,” Lee-Chin Jr also said to the
Business Observer.